The Elk River is the largest freshwater tributary to Humboldt Bay and once ran clear through miles of thriving salmon and steelhead habitat. For generations, the Wiyot people fished, harvested, and smoked salmon along its banks, and the river's estuary anchored a rich web of life across the North Coast. Decades of intensive timber harvest upstream and diking and draining for agriculture near the coast have since choked the river with sediment, cut its estuary off from the tides, and left coho and Chinook salmon, steelhead, and coastal cutthroat trout — once abundant here — now federally listed and struggling to survive.

CalTrout has led technical studies on the watershed for years, building the roadmap needed to guide recovery, and works closely with timber and agricultural landowners, the Wiyot Tribe, local residents, and state and federal agencies on solutions for both the river and the community that depends on it. That work spans the watershed: addressing sediment and water quality problems left by historic logging upstream, and in the lower estuary, reconnecting hundreds of acres of diked former tidelands to the tides so salmon, tidewater goby, longfin smelt, and other species can regain the nursery habitat they need. Through voluntary agreements with willing landowners, CalTrout is also acquiring agricultural lands at high risk from sea level rise and returning them to tidal wetland. Restoration here is as much a cultural endeavor as an ecological one — CalTrout has partnered with the Wiyot Tribe to return ancestral land along the river for tribal stewardship, reconnecting the Tribe to fishing and cultural practices tied to the Hikshari' (Elk) River since time immemorial.

The benefits reach beyond fish and wildlife. A restored Elk River filters water naturally, absorbs floodwaters and buffers the surrounding community from storm damage, and supports the fishing economy and rural livelihoods tied to a healthy watershed — work made possible by a broad coalition of engineering and science partners, state and federal agencies, the Wiyot Tribe, and the Elk River community itself.